Evelyn Mok: Hymen Manoeuvre 3*** - One4Review

This is Ms Mok’s debut solo hour, and I really hope she keeps doing more because while this show might not be quite there yet, it does contain all the elements of an excellent performance, swirling around – they just haven’t coalesced into their final, perfect, form yet.

The show’s about sex. It’s quite bluntly about sex at some points, so don’t take anyone you wouldn’t be comfortable watching the first ten minutes of Bridesmaids with. It’s also about families and identity and the stories we tell about them. The framing narrative is one particular experience of Evelyn’s, and her comments and exposition are insightful and incisive, and definitely from a female perspective. I was amused to see at various points a majority of the women in the audience cackling, while a good number of the men looked on, rather bewildered.

Evelyn is confident on stage, and with the audience interaction, chatting to people and then using them in various bits of the narrative. I found her pace and tone to be a little grating at times, especially with the excessive use of the whiny, almost crying voice. I also felt that the material could comfortably have been condensed into forty minutes, which would make the show feel cleaner and more self-contained.